Mike Allen1010
04-25-2017, 9:42 PM
Good Lord willing, our youngest Son will graduate college in a couple months. He enjoys watches, so I used some mahogany left over from a previous project to build him a box to keep them in. 16" x 8" x 6" high. Simple dovetailed carcass, Cabriolet feet, frame and panel top with mitered bridle joints and Holly string inlay circle with carved initials. Finish is oil and varnish followed by shellac, paste wax. A fun hand tool project that doesn't require much lumber/time.
As I was starting the project, the LOML pointed out 3 of his best friends would also graduating at the same time. These 4 boys have been friends/teammates since they were 10, moving from age group water polo through NCAA Division I. They all pretty much grew up at our house and now they're roommates at school. The Boss suggested "wouldn't it be nice if we could give them each something personal that might remind them of their friendship". Since she's been in charge of gifts forever, I reasoned she obviously had something in mind. As usual, I totally missed the hint. Didn't take long before she spelled it out for me: "No genius, I mean you should make something for them".
My woodworking is pretty much on a project by project basis. This was my first experience building multiples of the same project and thought some of my fellow Neanders might be interested in what I learned:
* Work process – Upside: you save a lot of time planing/dimensioning stock when building multiples. Downside: keeping the multiple sets of parts straight, so grain matches etc., put a real premium on marking/labeling the parts. I spent lots of time sorting everything out repeatedly. Ultimately, using the cabinetmakers triangle on 2 edges of each part helped. Seems like I was always planing away one set of identifying marks - resulting in multiple, repeated "now which of these pieces go together again?" head scratching. Once some parts were assembled (top, carcass, feet), I ultimately resorted to blue tape labels to match things together.
* Repetition made my dovetails and joinery a little better than usual –. I guess there is something to the benefit of practice.
* Fussy jobs like fitting the bridle joints, shaping the Cabriolet feet and installing the quadrant hinges get pretty tedious when you have lots of of them to do.
* For me finishing is something I don't really enjoy and pre-much just put up with. That's a workable philosophy for a single project, but problematic with multiples. I guess this is one of the reasons why I guess professionals spray on their finishes.
Overall I enjoy the process of building a single, standalone project, more than building multiples. For me, building multiple copies of the same project seemed more like a job and less less like having fun. I guess this goes under the heading "be careful what you wish for, you just might get it"; as a hobbyist woodworker, always wishing for more shop time; I've thought wistfully about how cool it would be to make a living building furniture. I very much envy/admire professional furniture makers who are able to make this a reality. Their talent, courage and initiative are super impressive to me and something I know I could never accomplish. On the other hand, building these multiples has given me a renewed appreciation for how absolutely lucky I am to so thoroughly enjoy blundering about the shop, making shavings, without consideration for economic efficiency/productivity. In short, even though I have waaay less shop time than I would like, I'm grateful I'm free to spend that time enjoying the woodworking process, without the necessity of focusing on producing a useful result.
Sorry for the navelgazing –back to the central thought I wanted to share, but am clearly butchering! I'm surprised how much I'm looking forward to giving these kids their boxes. Come on.... their young people on the cusp of their future! Clearly they're waaay more interested in something closer to a new computer/phone/trip, than a simple wooden box. Thinking about it out loud, a box as a graduation gift sounds awfully trite. Regardless, I feel good about it and I'm hoping for the best.
All the best, Mike
http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w498/mikeallen1010/boxes/1_zpsliuqk7nm.jpg (http://s1078.photobucket.com/user/mikeallen1010/media/boxes/1_zpsliuqk7nm.jpg.html)
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As I was starting the project, the LOML pointed out 3 of his best friends would also graduating at the same time. These 4 boys have been friends/teammates since they were 10, moving from age group water polo through NCAA Division I. They all pretty much grew up at our house and now they're roommates at school. The Boss suggested "wouldn't it be nice if we could give them each something personal that might remind them of their friendship". Since she's been in charge of gifts forever, I reasoned she obviously had something in mind. As usual, I totally missed the hint. Didn't take long before she spelled it out for me: "No genius, I mean you should make something for them".
My woodworking is pretty much on a project by project basis. This was my first experience building multiples of the same project and thought some of my fellow Neanders might be interested in what I learned:
* Work process – Upside: you save a lot of time planing/dimensioning stock when building multiples. Downside: keeping the multiple sets of parts straight, so grain matches etc., put a real premium on marking/labeling the parts. I spent lots of time sorting everything out repeatedly. Ultimately, using the cabinetmakers triangle on 2 edges of each part helped. Seems like I was always planing away one set of identifying marks - resulting in multiple, repeated "now which of these pieces go together again?" head scratching. Once some parts were assembled (top, carcass, feet), I ultimately resorted to blue tape labels to match things together.
* Repetition made my dovetails and joinery a little better than usual –. I guess there is something to the benefit of practice.
* Fussy jobs like fitting the bridle joints, shaping the Cabriolet feet and installing the quadrant hinges get pretty tedious when you have lots of of them to do.
* For me finishing is something I don't really enjoy and pre-much just put up with. That's a workable philosophy for a single project, but problematic with multiples. I guess this is one of the reasons why I guess professionals spray on their finishes.
Overall I enjoy the process of building a single, standalone project, more than building multiples. For me, building multiple copies of the same project seemed more like a job and less less like having fun. I guess this goes under the heading "be careful what you wish for, you just might get it"; as a hobbyist woodworker, always wishing for more shop time; I've thought wistfully about how cool it would be to make a living building furniture. I very much envy/admire professional furniture makers who are able to make this a reality. Their talent, courage and initiative are super impressive to me and something I know I could never accomplish. On the other hand, building these multiples has given me a renewed appreciation for how absolutely lucky I am to so thoroughly enjoy blundering about the shop, making shavings, without consideration for economic efficiency/productivity. In short, even though I have waaay less shop time than I would like, I'm grateful I'm free to spend that time enjoying the woodworking process, without the necessity of focusing on producing a useful result.
Sorry for the navelgazing –back to the central thought I wanted to share, but am clearly butchering! I'm surprised how much I'm looking forward to giving these kids their boxes. Come on.... their young people on the cusp of their future! Clearly they're waaay more interested in something closer to a new computer/phone/trip, than a simple wooden box. Thinking about it out loud, a box as a graduation gift sounds awfully trite. Regardless, I feel good about it and I'm hoping for the best.
All the best, Mike
http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w498/mikeallen1010/boxes/1_zpsliuqk7nm.jpg (http://s1078.photobucket.com/user/mikeallen1010/media/boxes/1_zpsliuqk7nm.jpg.html)
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